


01.22.1996

by MacBoi



Category: Super Mario 64
Genre: 07/29/1995 build (Super Mario 64), Based on a Creepypasta, Creepypasta, Gen, Parallel Universes, Wario apparition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:47:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 8,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25231867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MacBoi/pseuds/MacBoi
Summary: Mario describes his experience in the January 22, 1996 build of Super Mario 64. Living in a pre-release version of the game is tough... And deadly. Can Mario survive the horrifying experience? Or will he die in the cruel wasteland that is the 01/22/1996 build? Based off of the YouTube video of the same name by Greenio.
Kudos: 6





	1. Prologue: The Black Void

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [01.22.1996](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/647437) by Greenio. 

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The beta version of Super Mario 64 is started up from a menu of various pre-release versions. The January 22, 1996 version is chosen and then booted up.

_It’s hard to say who, but someone had gotten their hands on a pre-cartridge of Super Mario 64. They were pretty eager to play the game. Being a die-hard fan of the game, they were excited that they could finally check out some pre-release copy and try it out. They quickly inserted the game into their Nintendo 64, ready to see what was different in this build of the game. Turns out, what they ended up seeing different was not at all what they excepted._

First, there was a dark black void with nothing in it at all, except the words VIDEO 1 in big green letters. They rippled against the black space behind them. Suddenly, there was a flicker of white behind it, which rippled alongside the words. 

Then, the VIDEO 1 text disappeared, and in its place, floated four eight-digit numbers. These numbers were dates, but somehow, they could different realities that could spawn from this empty void. A white box was in control of the dates, and was in charge of choosing which one to bring to life. 

The dates were:

07291995

09141995

11151995

01221996

Uncertainly, the white box scrolled down slowly to each one, making a BOOP-ing sound as it went, until it reached the bottom at 01221996. It then quickly made it’s way back to the top of the list, unsure of which to pick. It thought about the decision it would make for a short moment, then made its choice. Quickly, it scrolled down to 01221996 and selected it. 

Suddenly, the black void filled with a pattern of white and grey. It made a sound that was the same BOOP that the white box made, but it was much louder and somewhat distorted. It repeated several times. Had anyone existed in this black void, they would’ve had a major jolt. The void remained that way for a second. And then the universe it had created had come together into existence.

Unfortunately, the four universes were all sinister, full of evil. The black void was only capable of creating dark, evil wastelands. A wasteland meant to manipulate and torture the people in it. 

The universe it created had a name. Not a name like 01221996, but a real name. It was a childish sounding name, but at its core, was a very dark and sinister creation indeed.

Peach’s Castle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here is my second fan fiction! (For anyone wondering, the first one was an unfinished Animorphs fan fiction that I felt unsatisfied with, so I deleted it.) :p Technically it’s just a novelization of a Super Mario 64 07/29/1995 video, but I need to practice my writing skills, and watching the video I thought it would’ve been great in text form! There will be eight chapters of various lengths, narrated by Mario, plus the prologue and epilogue narrated in the third person. So far, I’ve only written the first chapter, and it might take awhile for me to finish, but once it’s finished I’ll release the next eight chapters and epilogue daily until the story is finished! Have a great day, and thanks to Greenio for creating the story in the first place! I’ve credited him, and if you want to watch the original video it is in the notes at the top of the page. :)


	2. The Semi-Calm Courtyard of Peach’s Castle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mario wanders happily around the courtyard of Peach’s Castle, and all is well at first. Nothing out of the ordinary. But then creepy things start happening. A green pipe appears out of nowhere. There are strange white figures, one of which is a clone of himself, under the moat. Mario keeps teleporting into random places. Can Mario get to the bottom of this before more stuff happens?

I stood outside Peach’s Castle, where the pipe had dropped me off at the beginning of my adventure to save Princess Peach. The pipe wasn’t there anymore. The scene was fairly calm. Birds chirped and there was a gentle breeze. I stood there for a moment, taking the feel of my favorite place in the world. 

Then I decided to go explore the courtyard. I’ve probably sat foot on every square inch of Peach’s courtyard, but I couldn’t help but explore one more time.

I walked in a small semi-circle, analyzing my surroundings. Then I walked past the sign near where the pipe appeared, did a couple of triple jumps, the first one incomplete, screaming in joy as I did it. 

“Hoo! Ha! Hoo! Ha! YA-HAA! Yeah!” I’m not really fond of my voice. It’s a fairly high voice, but it always sounds harsh and scratchy, and sounds like I'm in pain. People have told me that I sound worse then the Toads.

Doesn’t matter. 

I made my way over the hill and found myself in front of the bridge leading to the castle’s front entrance. But instead of going inside, I steered myself to the right and started making my way to the rightmost of the castle. On the way there though, I stopped at the brown bridge on the path. Don’t ask me why, but I had an ominous feeling. I mean, everything was the same as it always was, but I felt as if something was different in the air.

The path curved upward as I made my way back up. I told myself sternly, _Don’t be ridiculous, Mario. Nothing is wrong here. Why do you feel this way?_

Summoning my bravery, I turned around and made a little jump. “Hoo!” I cried. I decided to go and take another look. I mean, the rightmost of the castle was something I’d seen a million times… There was nothing scary or sinister, right?

I made my way across the bridge, doing a long jump as I did it. “YA-HAA!” I yelled out simultaneously. I made my way around the bend of the path, and then I saw it.

On the tower at the back, I saw a green pipe. One that hadn’t been there before.

The feeling I had returned as I saw it. It wasn’t as harsh or scary this time. 

_So_ , I thought to myself, _this is why I had this weird feeling. Somehow something had changed, and I felt it._

I have a pretty strong sixth sense, which helps me find secrets in my adventures. So this kind of thing isn’t really out of the ordinary for me. 

But even though it wasn’t anything scary, I stared at it for the longest time.

_I don’t know why, but this is weird._

Peach never told me she was installing a pipe on the side of her castle. She always tells me when she makes modifications to her castle, in case it gets taken over and I have to go through it to save her. She always lets me see _everything_ in it.

_Maybe I’ll ask her later. Maybe she’s planning to show it to me._

I started running toward the pipe. _Oh, well,_ I told myself. _I’ll just check this out and see what it’s for. Who knows, maybe Peach won’t even have to explain this to me._

I did a little jump, then fell into the entrance of the moat. “Hoo! Oof!” I grunted. I ran up the inclination to get to the pipe. Without even hesitating, I quickly ran in. I was eager to see where it led and why it was there. 

As I entered the pipe, I heard an “aroo-aroo-aroo” sound. The typical sounds pipes make. 

Everything went dark, and I could feel myself being transported to another location.

I was eager. Excited.

Would I go to some new, far-away place, like the paintings in the castle? Would I be transported to some secret room? 

I couldn’t contain my excitement! I was a little nervous, too. _What if it takes me to some place very dangerous where I’d never be able to escape?_

In _this case_ , I didn’t have to worry. The pipe spit me out in a place I’d been many, many times. The exit pipe was the same pipe I usually enter the castle grounds.

I was pretty disappointed. Here I was ready for a new adventure, and the pipe just spit me out in the calm place I _start_ my adventures.

What I didn’t know is that a very _deadly_ adventure was about to start!

* * *

“YA-HAA!” I screamed as I leaped from the pipe. Unfortunately, as you might’ve understood by now, I felt anything but enthusiastic about my discovery.

I started running down the path to the left of the pipe. I then skidded to a stop, next to the pipe, for a second. I noticed the pipe wasn’t sucking back into the ground like it normally did. But I barely paid attention, because it wasn’t important. I continued on my merry way down the path.

Bummed out, I decided to go for a little swim. As I walked down the path, I thought, _That was_ stupid _. Why would Peach build a pipe that does nothing but detour you to the pipe that takes you into this place?_

 _Peach owns me an explanation. Scratch that一she_ definitely _owes me an explanation._

As I approached the moat, I shrugged all this off. It was a hot day, and I needed a swim. I’d previously drained that very moat in order to get some Power Stars for the castle, but now that I’d gotten them all, Peach ordered it to be refilled. Once again, the moat was filled to the brim with ice-cold water.

And I needed to cool off.

I slid through the fence and tumbled into the water. I rested there for a few seconds.

 _Aaaah_ , I thought. _So blissful. So serene._

I did a 180 and swam to the surface. Then, treading water above the surface, I swam towards the shady spot in the water, under the bridge. 

I felt so calm. So at peace. 

But then I noticed something weird. There were two white objects in the distance. They were above the water, floating under the bridge. The first object was a long, vertical line, which looked like some glitch in the universe. I thought it was kind of weird and off-putting. Admittedly I was a bit scared. This kind of thing isn’t normal, okay?

But the second object is what really scared me, and made me basically forget about the other object.

It was in the _exact_ shape of my body. Same dimensions, everything. But there was one key difference: my skin, clothes, facial features, everything about me, were all pure white. It was like... some _ghost_ of me or something!

And it was floating in the air. 

_What is that?_

It really frightened me. But I had to know what it was. So I decided to swim over to take a little peek.

However, what happened next as I approached was even _scarier_.

I swam about seven or eight feet, and then it happened.

I heard a loud, buzzing noise that started out fairly quietly. It sounded like something far away in the distance, but weirdly enough, above my head. I quickly shrugged it off as some background noise.

It only remained that way for half a second. Then, the sound got very loud and ominous, and the sky grew dark. The world started to get fuzzy, and started to get brighter and darker at the same time. It was getting so bright that I couldn’t see the two white shapes in the distance very well, as they became indistinct blobs. 

I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out.

I started to panic. _This is the一_

* * *

_一end?_

I blinked in the bright sunlight.

There was a black flash of darkness, with bits of static looking white dots. It startled me.

I looked around. The weird lighting was gone. And I seemed to be on the silver bridge in front of Peach’s Castle. 

Wait a second. I was in the water _under_ the bridge when the scary noise played. 

Somehow I had teleported to the top of the bridge, now standing on my own two feet.

 _This is definitely not normal_ , I thought. 

I paced around in a circle, and then a weird ripple effect happened. It was like the whole entire world started rippling in front of my eyes.

It only lasted a second. Then the ripple ceased, and the world returned to normal, or what seemed like normal, anyway.

My heart stopped cold. _What is going on? Is Peach or somebody else playing a prank on me?_

I looked around, trying to find the source of the sound. It had come from above me, so I peaked above my head. 

I found myself staring at the stained-glass window of Peach herself above the main doors of Peach’s Castle. 

And then it dawned on me. _The sound came from Peach’s stained-glass window. Whatever happened, it was because of something in there._

Then the world rippled again, and, although I was expecting it to happen again, I still had a small jolt. 

_What should I do?_ I asked myself.

I immediately had an answer. _You need to go in through the glass window_ , I told myself sternly. _Something’s up._

 _But that’s_ scary _!_ I argued with myself. 

_Don’t be foolish_ , I argued back to my last response. _You’ve dealt with scary things before. You can handle something that is literally just a weird noise from Peach’s Castle. Besides, you’ve dealt with the paranormal before. You’ve visited Big Boo’s Haunt. It’s not like you can’t deal with ghosts or scary stuff, that place is as haunted as it gets!_

I couldn’t argue back with that logic.

I turned around and headed toward the cannon in the castle’s courtyard. Thankfully, I had already obtained all of Peach’s 120 Power Stars, so the cannon was open as a result.

I slid down a small hill in front of the cannon and then did a little jump. “Hoo!” I cried. Then I fell in the cannon, but grabbed onto the edge for support. “Woo!” I cried nervously, having barely caught myself. I proceeded to let go, and tumbled in.

The cannon started to push itself out, making grinding gear noises as it went. The noises sounded a bit “choppy” for some reason, but after teleporting from under the moat and onto the bridge, it didn’t really scare me. The cannon probably needed some oil. I decided to tell Peach about it later so we could fix it.

I carefully positioned my aim. Very carefully, since I didn’t want to miss and end up on the roof or something.

Or maybe I really was hesitating. If I’m honest, I was very nervous. The white figures, the scary noise, and the teleporting all really freaked me out. 

But I had to face whatever was in there.

So I aimed… And launched myself into the window.

“YA-HAA!” I screamed in my idiotic voice.

And then it occurred to me that I was going to _crash_ through the window. _Peach isn’t going to be happy about that_ , I thought suddenly. _You know, her boyfriend crashing into her beloved, expensive stained-glass portrait of herself_.

But I didn’t have to worry. I’d aimed wrong and was heading for the side of the roof. 

_Oooooops_ , I thought.

But then two strange things happened at once. 

As I neared the roof, I was moving slower. But not just me. _Everything_ was moving slower! 

Somehow, time was _slowing down_ a little bit! 

But then, I touched the roof, and time went back to it’s normal speed.

The rope was sloped, so I slid down on my belly. 

But not to a flat area of the roof or to the ground.

I had, somehow, slid down into a compartment directly behind the stained-glass. 

I was in. And better yet, I hadn’t had to break any glass! Meaning Peach _wasn’t_ going to kill me! 

I looked around, and then realized I’d never been in this part of the castle before.

What happened next made me realize that places _can_ be more haunted than Big Boo’s Haunt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! Hope you're enjoying this written recreation of 01.22.1996!  
> Sorry about this chapter being so looooooong, most of the chapters to come are going to be much shorter. The length of the chapters will be somewhat inconsistent, since every time Mario enters a new place, the first chapter stops and the next chapter starts. So if Mario spends a very short amount of time in one area, the chapter might be a one-minute read as a result. In conclusion, sorry about this being so long in comparison to the prologue.  
> This chapter is also quite boring admittedly, until the end. Future chapters will be much more interesting, don’t worry.  
> I’m also going to start releasing one chapter a day until completion of the story. I know there was only one chapter for the longest time with a long hiatus for the second one to come, but I promise, for the next nine days, I’ll be releasing each one simultaneously back to back.


	3. Falling Behind the Stained Glass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mario falls behind the stained glass in the castle. He then meets something一or someone一who has a very important一and deadly一message.

What was behind the stained glass was a small room. It was a short hall, about seven feet long. It seemed like any other room in Peach’s Castle. But there was a slight difference.

Everything in the room was red. The checkered floor that appears throughout the castle had red titles instead of white. The white brick walls, the same material that Peach’s Castle has on the exterior, was also red. I blinked hard. The red was so vivid, it almost felt like it was glowing. Red is not the most pleasant color to be completely surrounded in. 

The room was also rippling just like it had outside. Not to the same extent, but the effect was still there. It was milder, less in-your-face. 

Back to the color of the room, not everything was red. There were three things in the room that were in normal color. 

The first was me. (Technically, my overalls and cap are red, but they’re supposed to be red, which doesn’t count. My overalls were still blue, and my hair, skin, and everything else on me were also still their normal colors.) 

The second thing still in its normal colors were the two doors at the end of the short hall. They were the same kind of doors you typically see around Peach’s Castle一dark brown with bright yellow knobs.

But the third thing was… Strange. It was in the leftmost corner of the room down the hall from me. It was a mismatch of random shapes. It had a long, oval body, with some yellow horn-like shapes over its circular build. It had a little green button on its one side.

I stared at it for the longest time. And as I stared at it, I considered what I should do to the thing I was faced with.

_Is this a living, mutated thing?_

_Is it an object?_

_Should I talk to it?_

_What if it’s dangerous?_

_Is it what’s causing this distortion in the universe I’m facing right now?_

_Does it want to help me?_

_Or_ hurt _me?_

So many questions.

After staring at it for the longest time, confused and worried, I decided I might as well attempt to speak to it. I mean, maybe it wasn’t alive and wouldn’t respond, but I decided I might as well _try_ to talk to it to _see_ if it’s alive. 

I started to run over toward it, but then was greeted by the buzzing sound again. I skidded to a stop, startled. It was quieter this time, but still present. It also was persistent this time, and continued constantly during the entire time I was in this room. I considered for a half-second to turn back, but decided against it. I _had_ to know what was going on!

So I kept moving toward it.

Finally, I was standing right next to it. I decided to see if it was alive by swinging my fists at it. “Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!” I said loudly with each swing. I wasn’t hitting it, I just wanted to see if it would react. 

It didn’t do anything. So I figured, _Eh, maybe this is a weird, mutated object._ I decided to swing my fist at it one more time just to be sure of it.

But before I could swing it, I heard some music coming from it. It was the same music that plays before a Toad in the castle speaks. 

_What the一_

And then this thing started to speak. 

Sorry. Maybe that’s not the right word.

It started to _shriek_. One word. Repeatedly. As it spoke, the buzzing sound got slightly louder. Not by much, but enough for me to notice it and start feeling more uncomfortable. 

“LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE”

Then it suddenly stopped yelling, leaving me feeling uncertain.

And still scared.

_Leave?_

_What do you mean,_ leave _?_

I tried asking it more. But that’s all I was getting out of this thing. But I still had some questions I wanted answers to. 

_Is this a Toad? A Toad under a spell, or mutated, or cursed?_

_Was it covering up some big secret?_

_Does it not want me to see something in this castle?_

_Or is it legit trying to warn me? Protect me? From whatever is behind these doors?_

I guess a normal person would’ve, you know, turned back. This was enough horror for one day, they’d probably reason. I mean, I was scared to death, so that was the only logical thing, right?

But the thing is, I’m always confident I can deal with anything. Ask anyone I know about me, and that’s probably the first thing they’d say about me. So yeah, I was getting myself in unnecessary trouble, because I was getting to the bottom of this. Because it wouldn’t be me if I’d just minded my own business.

So I turned and entered the door, not hesitating.

As I did so, two thoughts went through my head. 

_Can this possibly get any scarier?_

_Why hasn’t Peach said_ anything _about this?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can probably tell, this chapter is a LOT shorter than the last one. That’s the way this fic will go一a long chapter, then a really short chapter, then maybe a medium sized chapter一fairly randomly. Sneak peak: the next chapter will be even shorter and even less will happen. ;P  
> Not too much happened in this chapter admittedly, but I liked how I characterized Mario as this overconfident, “I-can-deal-with-anything” kind of person at the end of the chapter. I’ve always imagined Mario as that. He’s dealt with so much in his various games that are completely chaotic and dangerous and nearly impossible to succeed in, without a hint of doubt that anything will go wrong. Mario is likely someone very stubborn and self-confident, and maybe even narcissistic, so I think this kind of characterization kind of fits to be honest. He also seems paranoid一but that’s just the way he was in the video, so I characterized him as such. (Besides, if you went up against the same kinds of things that Mario does in this story, you’d be a little paranoid yourself.)


	4. The Endless Hallway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mario runs down a hallway in Peach’s Castle he’s never seen before. He hears the Endless Staircase music as he runs. Strange distortions in the universe continue occurring as he runs down the hall.

I shut the door behind me. The buzzing stopped. The ripple effect became a little milder, but was still present. 

But the music started.

Surprised, I started to panic. I snapped to attention and started running as fast as I could down the hall.

The room was a hallway that looked a lot like the last one. Everything in it was red and black, very similar to the last room. 

But what was unsettling about this hall was the music. It was the same music that played during the Endless Staircase. 

I don’t know why it freaked me out so much. After all, on my quest to save Peach I’d run up the Endless Staircase. The exact same music played, and it didn’t feel threatening at all. 

_But now it did._

This hall wasn’t too scary or out of the ordinary, but for some reason, I couldn’t help but make a run for it. My instincts told me to leave this hallway. To leave this long hallway and continue to the next room right NOW!

The long path down the hallway branched into three separate directions: one path continuing straight ahead, and then two paths splitting into different directions. I ignored those two paths and walked right past them. Maybe there was something there, but I decided I’d probably rather not know.

Besides, I could see the door at the end of the long hallway. It was a bright brown door with a yellow knob, the kind of door I’d seen all over the castle. I had my sights on it and was making a run towards it. 

Frantically, I did a long jump to accelerate my speed running toward the door. “YA-HAA!” I cried anxiously. I was getting really scared and wanted to leave this area. 

But then, weird things started to happen. It was almost as if my long jumping had triggered some weird effect. 

First my beautiful blue overalls turned pitch black. I gasped in horror, but wasn’t going to let that slow me down. 

Then the world flickered black. Seriously. It was like the world had gotten switched off for a half second. This surprised me too, but I was heading for this door, and wasn’t going to be stopped by random scares. 

A couple seconds later, the flickering happened again, but now I saw the words TURN BACK in bright orange letters fading into yellow against the black void.

Then things were getting stranger. Static began to fill the room and the ripple got a lot more intense.

 _It’s like I’m going crazy_ , I told myself. _But I’m not. This is literally happening._

The words TURN BACK flickered again, and again. But I was almost at the door of this long hallway, and I wasn’t about to be stopped. It was getting harder to see. But I kept moving forward. I was frantic to get out of this hall. 

There was another flicker of black. And then I felt a wall. _Ah-ha!_ I thought to myself. _There’s the door!_

Finally, I had made it to the door. I opened it, relieved. As I was doing so, I saw the words TURN BACK again in great big letters. But I wasn’t turning back. I was going in to see what was up with all this.

As I shut the door, I saw the same words again in a quick flicker, but now, they were even bigger, more menacing than before in front of this black void.

 _TURN BACK_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Super short chapter today. :P Tomorrow's will be more of a medium length.  
> I had trouble with this one (for some reason) and ended up re-writing it from scratch. If you guys want to see an earlier, scrapped version of the chapter maybe I’ll show it off later, if a lot of people are asking.


	5. The Wario Apparition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mario enters a very quiet room that is very quiet. He then encounters something extremely horrifying that he can’t tell you about… Because it erased his memory.

As I entered the next room, things started to go back to normal. My black overalls changed back to their normal blue color, the ripple effect mysteriously disappeared, and the music stopped.

This room was almost completely silent. It didn’t have a calm, serene feel, but more of a creepy, ominous sensation. It was scary for practically the opposite reason the last room was scary一it was so quiet, it was giving me the willies.

 _I think I’ve made a terrible mistake_ , I thought to myself grimly. 

But the adventurous part of me wasn’t exactly ready to turn back, as the blobby, distorted thing behind the stained glass asked me to do. I wanted to continue to explore. I got this itchy feeling that some form of negative energy was haunting Peach’s Castle, and Peach didn’t authorize any of this. 

So I decided to continue pushing on forward. I walked down the hall very slowly and quietly. Even though I was treading against the floor lightly, my footsteps still seemed quite loud in this room. 

I told myself that I was doing it because I didn’t want to make much noise in this room. But, to be honest, that’s not why I was doing it at all. I was doing it because… My sixth sense was beeping again. And it told me that I should walk very softly through the hall.

So that’s why I did it. I didn’t admit it at the time, but that’s why I was doing it.

I looked around, and this room was another long hallway, with a green carpet and walls full of dark black bricks, with purple filling in between them.

 _Peach would never allow this in her castle!_ I thought. This green and black was not Peach’s style. She’d _never_ approve of this black and green color scheme! Even I had to admit it looked ugly. 

At the end of the hall, it opened into a small room that had one set of stairs on the right with the same green carpeting. It had two doors on either side of the main hallway, made of those cheap wooden planks leading up the stairs, and then a set of two doors in the middle of the wooden door. To the left, there was another hallway, but I wasn’t checking it out. No. _Way_. 

I walked forward, entranced by the doors. I was going to walk as slowly, softly as I could, and then through one of the doors. Good. I had a plan. A very small, flimsy plan, but a plan.

I was so entranced by the door that I didn’t even notice the sign. I was walking forward, forward, and then I bumped into a brown sign, same as you see everywhere in this castle.

I hugged the sign as I bumped into it. Surprised, I took a step back and began to read what it said.

_Please walk quietly in the hallway._

I blinked in surprise. My sixth sense is never wrong. I felt that I had to walk quietly in the hallway, and I did. But why did I have to do that? _That_ I could not figure out.

The message continued:

_Do not awaken him._

What?

Awaken who?

Was someone一or something一in here with me? Was it dangerous? Was it out for my blood?

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. So much weird stuff had happened in the last two minutes that I was beginning to not be surprised by any of it. I mean, I could suddenly teleport to an alien planet in another universe and I wouldn’t have been surprised. Scared, maybe. But not surprised.

I continued to read the sign:

_The exit is behind you,一_

And then it just stopped. It was followed by a long, empty space.

I assumed that the sign hadn’t been completed yet. I shrugged, assuming I wouldn’t know how it ended.

But at the very bottom of the sign, I saw the rest of the sentence. It was written in very small letters and if I’d been careless I would’ve missed it. 

_一use it while you still can._

I stared at the sign for a moment, not reading it, but deciding what to do. 

Maybe the sign was right. _Maybe I should leave_ , I thought to myself. I didn’t need to deal with this today. 

_You can deal with this一_

What happened next could only be described as chaos. There was a loud, buzzing sound. I turned around. As I did it, the world flickered black and I saw the words IT’S NOT REAL in the same, yellow letters for a split second. And then, I was face-to-face with a giant, floating head at the end of the hall in which I’d entered, smiling the evilest grin I’ve ever seen in my life. It was so big, it literally blocked the entrance in which I’d entered this room. 

I was instantly mortified. But not because it was a giant, scary head. 

It was because the head一was a head I knew. It looked exactly like someone I knew.

The head was of Wario.

It looked exactly like Wario’s head. It had a yellow hat with a purple W on it. It had a big, ugly black mustache. It had pointy elf ears. It had a huge, blotchy pink nose and an ugly double chin.

I could never mistake Wario. This was definitely him.

But with one key difference一Wario didn’t have pupils in his eyes. His eyes were two dark, black, menacing circles.

I opened my mouth to scream, but couldn’t. I was almost ready to _cry_ , I was so scared. 

One thing was for sure, though, this wasn’t一

* * *

 _Maybe I should leave_ , I thought to myself. I didn’t need to deal with this today. 

_You can deal with this some other day_ , I thought as I turned toward the empty, desolate exit. I had a strange jolt in my stomach, like I had seen something scary all of a sudden. But nothing was there. I shrugged it off. _Just tell Peach that something is wrong with the castle, and deal with it some other day. Maybe this time I’ll bring a whole crowd of people so I can deal with it easier._

Then I realized it. 

_Peach_.

Peach was still in this castle, all alone. She rarely leaves the castle. She spends all of her days there! She barely experiences the outside world! 

I had to go through the castle, and find Peach. Get her out of here, and leave this castle, and we won’t come back until we think of a rational plan. 

After hesitating a little, I started to go out. But, looking at the three different paths of doors I could take, I wasn’t sure which to choose. After hesitating a bit, I went straight for the door up the right set of stairs. I hurried up to them, my feet pounding against the floor loudly. For some reason, I felt I didn’t need to tread softly anymore. I felt like there was no reason to do so.

I shrugged it off. _I didn’t see anything weird in here, anyway_ , I thought to myself. _The sign was wrong. There’s nothing that could potentially be awakened in here._

As I opened the door, I had one final thought before leaving the room. _Besides, even if there was something weird, I would know about it. Right?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whee! An exciting chapter! YAAAAAY!   
> I guess this would be a good place to talk about what I think about 07/29/1995, Do Not Research, Every Copy Is Personalized, and the Wario apparition, since the latter makes an appearance in this chapter.  
> I’ve had mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I like all these scary edits people make on YouTube where they claim that they’ve found a prototype copy of Super Mario 64. I’ve really been enjoying those scary parodies that people have made, and this very fanfiction is based off of one of the videos I’ve seen.   
> But at the same time, I feel almost annoyed. We have the source code and we’ve reverse-engineered the entire game. People went through the files of the game. So what I don’t understand is why people think this game has all this creepy stuff in it.  
> We live in times where we have the Internet to prove all this stuff is false. After all, isn’t this how L is Real 2401 was debunked? So WHY is this raging on despite the fact it’s clearly false?   
> Most people don’t believe it, but there are some who DO! And it’s kind of making me mad.  
> People are now treating the game like it’s the most evil mechanically driven object in existence, and it just… Really bothers me.  
> Anyway. That’s my rant.


	6. Peach’s Gloomy Entrance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mario decides to look for Peach in the castle. But on his way to find her, he finds himself in a very familiar place in the castle that now has a very different look.

As I stepped out into the next room, I had another shock.

I was in the main entrance of Peach’s Castle. The place Peach calls home.

Except something was wrong. Something was _very_ wrong.

The main entrance looked really old and putrid. The walls were rusty and brown instead of having the cloud design, and the floor was covered in dust. Instead of the bright red carpet Peach put all over the castle, the same ugly green rug was in his place. The stairs leading up to the top balcony were missing. The place smelled like dead fish.

The room, usually bustling with activity, was also completely barren of people. The Toad who usually greets everyone who enters the castle, and never leaves his spot in the entrance, was missing. 

I ran to the circle in front of where the stairs used to be. The sun icon, the one with the spotlight on it that took me to the Red Switch Palace, was no longer there, leaving a small crevasse where it was supposed to be.

 _That settles it_ , I told myself. _Peach would never set up the main entrance like this. The castle has been overthrown by some paranormal activity, and I need to find Peach before we can’t get out of here anymore._

I called around for Peach. But she was nowhere to be found. I walked around, calling her frantically. But I couldn’t find her.

I was alone in the castle.

 _No, you’re not_ , I told myself sternly. _You are not alone in this castle, and you are going to find Peach and get her out of here._

I walked up the stairs on the rightmost of the entrance, and then decided I had better continue searching for Peach in the castle somewhere else besides this room because obviously she wasn’t here. Eager to continue my search, I jumped from the railing and landed about a couple feet to the ground. 

I wasn’t sure which door to take, so I decided to just take the first one I saw. It was the door on the side of the wall where the main stairs used to be. I entered it and looked inside. 

It led to the left door of the same room I was in earlier, and then I realized something. 

This was the hallway to the back courtyard and the basement! I hadn’t recognized it when I’d first entered since it had looked so different. But一how did I make it from the stained glass all the way down to the main floor without ever going down any floors?

For some reason, the doors were taking me to different places than they should have been in the castle. 

_Yep_ , I told myself. _If it wasn’t_ painfully _obvious, something is clearly not right with this._

I then noticed that the two doors were on this side of the wall, but not on the other side.

 _That’s strange_ , I told myself. _Why would there be a door on one side of the wall and not the other?_

 _I bet this is where Peach is. Where_ else _would Peach be?_

I opened the door, and as I did it, I saw the same, ugly orange letters flicker again and again, accompanied with an extra buzzing sound. Two different messages flickered, alternating between each other: LEAVE and TURN BACK.

Now I was feeling a little worried. Why was it giving me all this extra warning? 

It didn’t take me long to figure out why.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, no! This isn’t good… What is happening to the castle? Maybe you’ll find out tomorrow! (I’m sorry I don’t know what to write here. I’ll write anything in here at this point.)


	7. The Hallway of Molasses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mario enters another hallway that is very similar to the last, but with slower music and is blue. As he runs down the hallway, he feels as if a force is making him run in slow motion.

I shut the door behind me, and the next thing I knew, I was in another hallway. 

_Oh, no_ , I told myself. _Not again!_

It was very similar to the same hallway I’d been in earlier. The same music, the Endless Staircase melody, was playing. 

But something was different. In the other room, the walls and the white tiles on the floor were red.

In this room, they were _blue_.

I guess this color change made this hall slightly less eerie than the last one, since blue isn’t nearly as menacing as red, but the hall gave off such a creepy aura that I couldn’t help but be scared.

Still, I couldn’t help running. I don’t know _what_ it was with this hallway and its red counterpart, it just really rubbed me the wrong way. And when something rubs me the wrong way, I listen to myself.

The good news was that, unlike the red hallway, there was no ripple effect in this hallway that worsened as I ran, which was a good thing, because… I don’t know, it makes it hard to see? I mean, it wasn’t very dangerous, just off putting. Let’s just say that I’d rather it not be there than be there.

Anyway, as I ran, I noticed something was wrong with the music.

It was a little different this time. Normally, as you run and the melody plays, the melody gets faster.

But that wasn’t what was happening.

The melody was getting _slower_.

And somehow, this was making it sound _worse_!

I tried to run even faster toward the door at the end of the hall. But then something weird happened.

As it was getting slower, _I_ was getting slower!

I can’t really describe the feeling, but as the song was slowing, I felt like my movement was also slowing. Maybe it was all in my head because I was so scared, but it really did feel like it was happening. Like I was trying to run in a giant container of molasses.

 _Oh my gosh_ , I told myself, _no. If the effect keeps worsening, I’m going to become so slow I won’t be able to move._

_C’mon, Mario!_

I kept pushing forward, using all the strength I could. It was exhausting, and it took literally all my strength, but as the song kept slowing and I kept running, somehow I made it to the door.

The door was rusty, metallic, and old, but looked sort of futuristic in a strange sense. I grabbed the yellow knob and opened the door, utterly exhausted and panting from all the running I had to deal with.

 _Peach had_ better _be behind this door_ , I thought angrily.

Now I’ve said this many, many times, but I’ll tell you this: this time, I was _really_ not ready for what I was about to see.

You could’ve told me what I was about to see from outside that door and I wouldn’t have believed it. 

Seriously. What I was about to see got me to the bottom of all this. 

And it was straight out of my nightmares.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Story is almost done. One more, very long chapter narrated by Mario up ahead, where we see what “the bottom of this” is. After that, there will be an epilogue (which will be Chapter 9) narrated in the third person, similar to the prologue (Chapter 1). I hope you’ve enjoyed the story up until this point, and please stay tuned for Chapter 8 and the Epilogue if you did!


	8. Parallel Universes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mario makes his way out of the castle, but when he sees the exterior, he realizes that he is now in an alternate universe一where nothing makes any sense at all.

The next place I entered was really weird. The door led outside to the exterior of the castle. The walls were a dark hue of blue. The sky was dark, and there was now music outside. It was playing a slow tune that sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t recognize because it was playing backwards. It reminded me of Donut Plains, a place over in Dinosaur Land where Peach and I had taken a vacation a little while back.

I have no idea why.

It was like a long path full of purple tiles. Then suddenly, they stopped and the next thing I knew, I was falling.

“Oof!” I screamed as I landed hard into the slope of Peach’s moat. I scraped my knee badly and it kind of hurt. But I had to keep going. 

I made my way out of the slope. _Shoot,_ I thought. _Now I’m outside. Peach is probably still trapped in the castle. I’ll have to go back in and find her._

I looked around. _Now, I’m surrounded by a bunch of crummy pink trees and orange grass._

Wait, _what_?

Looking around, everything around me was in the wrong color. The trees, sprinkled all around the castle, were now pink with blue trunks. The grass was now bright pink as well. The path was a light blue.

 _Uh oh_ , I thought. This _isn’t right…_

In the corner, I saw two Goombas. Normally, I’d squish them, but I was glad to see them, since I hadn’t seen any familiar faces the whole time I was in this searching the castle except… except… No, I hadn’t seen anyone familiar. For a second my brain got stuck thinking I’d seen someone else during this adventure. But aside from the deformed “thing” in Peach’s stained-glass, I hadn’t seen anyone else up until this point. Why would I even start thinking something like that?

Anyway. About the Goombas. They were also… Wrong. Instead of being a muddy brown like Goombas usually are, they were a bright blue color. Some Goombas that live underground are blue, as I’d seen in my first couple of quests to save Princess Peach. I just assumed that the Goombas from the caves were now outside for some reason, but that didn’t make sense because blue Goombas don’t ever leave their underground home. 

I turned and looked at the castle. And almost had a heart attack.

The castle was completely black. Somehow, while I was inside, the bright, happy white tiles of the castle changed completely to black, dark, solemn tiles. The shutters were now dark blue instead of their usual light brown.

 _This clearly isn’t right_ , I told myself. I looked down at myself, horrified, wondering if my colors had changed too. But no, they hadn’t. My skin was still its normal color, my hat and shirt were still red, my overalls were still blue, my buttons were still yellow, my gloves were still white, and my shoes were still brown. 

_Whew_.

_But where am I?_

And then I put the pieces together in my head. I had, somehow, discovered an entrance to an alternate universe where everything was erratic and weird, where things happened that a normal entity from the normal universe couldn’t understand.

Peach wasn’t in trouble, I assumed, because she hadn’t entered through the portal through the stained-glass. She had just stayed put wherever she was, happily in the castle. And somehow, in Peach’s Castle, a portal had opened that took me to an alternate universe. I had been lured in by the weird energy surrounding the portal, because that was the effect that such a portal would give off. 

I had entered such a dark world, and I was getting OUT of it right now! I wasn’t worried about Peach, she was safe in the normal universe. 

I continue down the path. I planned to go in through the doors in the entrance way so I could enter through the doors, go into the room where I had to walk quietly, then the terrifying Red Hallway, to finally escape from the stained glass. I’d be free. 

And oh, boy, once I was free, I’d never come back here. Like, _ever_. 

I stopped and ground-pounded in front of the bridge, which was now a dark blue, in contrast with the path, which was light blue. Then I continued on my way to get to the front doors of the castle.

A Goomba was resting on the bridge, minding his own business when he saw me. Then he turned around, and I saw the most horrifying thing.

The whites in the Goomba’s eyes were black instead of the normal white. Their pupils were white. And they were giving me an eerie, horrifying, toothy _frown_. Goombas normally have two fangs and that’s it.

I was horrified.

 _Goombas wouldn’t normally look like this in any way, shape, or form_ , I thought with horror. _That’s it. I’m leaving this horrible place, and I’m never coming back even if you_ pay _me._

Freaked out by the Goomba, I did a frantic long jump. “YA-HAA!” I screamed like a crazy person. Which maybe I was one. I was scared of a Goomba of all things, and thought I was in a parallel universe that I’d entered through a stained-glass window of my girlfriend. Who knows, right?

I made my way to the front of the castle, and then my heart sank.

The doors to enter were still there, all right. But now, the bridge was gone. Removed. Obliterated from existence. 

I couldn’t get to those doors. There was no way for me to get in. 

_NOOOOOOOOOOO!_ I thought to myself.

Then I told myself, _Calm down. There’s probably some other way to get back in so you can take the portal back to the normal universe._

That got me to keep going. I continued on my way to the rightmost of the castle, almost bumping into a Goomba as I turned around to do so. I remembered that there was a green pipe that had been installed there that I’d seen before I left. It didn’t go anywhere in the normal universe, but I figured that since every door in this castle seemed to take me to a random place, maybe I could make my way back inside through the pipe. 

I walked over to where the pipe would be, and had a bitter disappointment. Not only was the pipe not there, but the castle tower where the pipe should’ve been was also missing.

Now I was getting annoyed. Why had I been so careless to walk off the ledge like that? I could’ve turned back, and now I was potentially stuck in this nonsensical universe. 

But then I remembered an entrance to the castle. It was in a small square hole in the moat’s floor. It technically didn’t take you into the castle, but since I figured it could take me in any random spot, I realized that I could just go in there and be spat out in some random area in the parallel universe castle. And I could make my way back home from there. 

It was the perfect plan. I just needed to get out of there.

I jumped into the water, and it was really warm and murky inside. Not like the fresh, cool water from _my_ universe. But it was in _this_ universe so what do you expect?

The seabed of the moat was also bright red with black patches. Really soft and mushy… Yuck. 

I swam around for a bit, looking for the hole. And then I saw it. I swam to it. _There it is! My ticket out of here!_ I was just about ready to cry tears of happiness, but that’s not something one can do underwater. So I just swam over and inside. 

I swam really deep inside, almost deep enough to be transported somewhere else.

But then something happened.

I couldn’t move forward anymore.

 _Wait, what?!_ I panicked. _Why can’t I move forward?_

I tried moving backwards. _Oh, noooo! I can’t move backwards_ either _!_

I tried touching my nose. _Uh oh. I can’t move at all!_

And that was a problem. Why? Because I was underwater. 

And I was running low on air. 

The world started rippling furiously. I tried desperately to move.

But I couldn’t.

 _Oh no, oh no, oh no. I can’t move. I can’t move. I’m going to_ drown _down here!_

The world flickered black three times. The first time I saw the word LEAVE, then I saw, IT’S NOT REAL, then the word LEAVE again.

 _I’m_ trying _to leave, but it won’t let me! Why is this universe telling me to do things I_ can’t do _?!_

And I thought about the other message, IT’S NOT REAL. I hadn’t seen that message before一right? 

_It’s not real?_ I thought to myself. _What’s_ that _supposed to mean? This universe isn’t real? But right now, it’s the_ only _thing that’s real!_

I only understood LEAVE. I had been told many times to leave, and I didn’t listen.

_I should have._

_The first time I had been told to leave, I should’ve left and gotten out of there. I shouldn’t have gotten myself in all that crazy stuff I’d just witnessed._

My air was getting low, and my brain was literally now beeping, an alarm telling me to rise up to the surface and get some air. But I couldn’t move at all. I was going to drown for sure.

This was the price I paid for not leaving this dark universe I’d entered.

The universe filled with static and I could barely see. The ripple effect was intensifying. 

I decided to prepare my last thought. I saw no hope for a future for myself.

I thought about Peach and how she was really a great person. I was sad that I’d never see her again, and how she’d never know what happened to me, since my body would be lost in the alternate universe I had ventured into. I thought about all my friends in the Mushroom Kingdom, most of which were Toads with big mushroom heads, but they were a kind race and I was sad to not ever see them again. I was going to miss Yoshi, who had been a parental figure to me and had raised me and my brother with his dinosaur friends.

 _My… brother? Who’s that?_ For some reason, I couldn’t remember. _What?_

But I was interrupted by the word LEAVE, which grew bigger and bigger in front of my face with a loud buzzing noise in the water. It grew so big that it covered almost my entire field of vision. 

It was such a pity.

It was what I wanted to do, but一

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh oh…


	9. Epilogue: The Error Screen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The game crashes and goes to an error screen, as a result of Mario dying.

The static disappeared. The buzzing sound stopped.

Mario grabbed his throat, desperate for air, lungs burning. He could finally move again. 

But he didn’t have the strength to move up for air. Finally, his arms and legs sagged, as he floated lifelessly under the water’s surface, completely dead.

The universe was swallowed into blackness, in the shape of Bowser’s head. Bowser’s triumphant laugh aroused through the seams of the universe as it was swallowed away. 

Now that Mario had died, the universe could no longer exist. Mario had been the steering wheel, conducting the universe. Without Mario, his universe couldn’t exist. Mario had died, and so did the universe along with him.

From the blackness came another void, but this time it wasn’t pitch black like the first time. It was blue this time, and had a repeating pattern of squares that had the words SUPER MARIO 64 in them, repeating over and over, in this endless place that was all that was left of anything in the universe. 

Some text, of various colors, floated in the air. Maybe the text meant something, but it wasn’t going to save Mario or the universe.

ERROR

7A 78 65 66 69 72 65 74

76 7A 6A 73 63 7A 6A 6A

One last thing occurred in the universe before it remained that way, infinitely, for the rest of eternity. One final thing, the last thing that would ever happen in this lifeless existence.

A voice rang, throughout the huge emptiness of the universe. 

“Nintendō no tanoshimi ga hajimatta bakari,” it said. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> E V E R Y C O P Y O F S U P E R M A R I O 64 I S P E R S O N A L I Z E D (eh, not really.) Thanks for reading and following along! Sorry if you didn’t like the ending, I didn’t write this story, it’s based off of Greenio’s video. I’m hopefully going to write another fanfic on here sometime, but I don’t know when since I’m currently concentrating on other projects. Byyyyyyyyyye!!


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